Three Pittsburgh City Council members on Wednesday revived the idea of a parking lease to bail out the pension fund, but they said the deal would be structured in a way to meet a council majority's deep-seated concerns about private management of garages and meters.

Citing a need to break a council-mayoral stalemate on how to help the pension fund, council members Ricky Burgess, R. Daniel Lavelle and Theresa Kail-Smith said they'll introduce legislation today directing the mayor's office to begin negotiating new terms for a parking lease.

A draft of their bill doesn't say who the city would negotiate with, but the investment team that was the high bidder for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's failed parking lease proposal would be the likely candidate.

The city's pension fund, now 27.5 percent funded, must be at least 50 percent funded by year's end to avoid a state takeover. James Allen, secretary of the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System, today will provide a report on what the city's obligations under a takeover would be, but Mr. Ravenstahl for months has predicted skyrocketing annual payments that the city could make only with tax hikes or service cuts.

Right now, the city's required annual pension contribution is $45 million, though city plans to kick in an extra $11 million or so this year because it can afford to do so.

Under a takeover, payments would increase considerably, according to the report PMRS provided Wednesday night so city officials could have the data before today's meeting.

Under a takeover, the report says, the city's annual payments could jump to as much as $86 million by 2015. The annual payments could peak at $160 million in the decade of the 2030s under a state plan to get the pension fund 100 percent funded in 30 years.

The actual amounts required each year would depend on investment expectations and other funding decisions.

"I've yet to hear from a resident that favors state takeover," Mr. Lavelle said.

On Oct. 19, a seven-member council majority, which included Mr. Lavelle, voted down Mr. Ravenstahl's proposal to lease city and parking authority facilities to private investors for 50 years.

A group led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and LAZ Parking bid nearly $452 million for the lease of about a dozen garages, 30 lots and 7,000 on-street meters, and Mr. Ravenstahl wanted to use at least $220 million of lease proceeds to avert a state takeover of the pension fund.

Council rejected the plan for various reasons, including the length of the lease, concerns about private management and fear that neighborhood business districts would be harmed by the parking rate increases that Mr. Ravenstahl included in the proposal to lure investors.

The same council majority advanced a plan to sell the city's share of parking assets -- the Mellon Square garage, five lots and the on-street meters -- to the parking authority for $220 million. As with the mayor's plan, the money would be used to avert a pension fund takeover.

But that plan, developed with the help of city Controller Michael Lamb, stalled last week when the parking authority board declined to study it. Under that plan, the authority would float a bond to buy the city parking assets, then repay the debt with parking rate increases more moderate than those Mr. Ravenstahl proposed.

Mr. Ravenstahl opposed the council-controller plan because it would mean adding to the parking authority's debt load.

Under a compromise mix-and-match plan, Mr. Burgess and Ms. Kail-Smith said, the city might lease the parking assets for fewer than 50 years and incorporate the parking rate structure that was part of the council-controller plan. A revenue-sharing provision is another possibility.

Such ideas likely would mean an upfront payment of less than the $452 million in the J.P. Morgan-LAZ Parking bid, but the deal still might net the $220 million needed to avert a pension fund takeover.

Mayoral spokeswoman Joanna Doven said Mr. Ravenstahl is open to a revised lease.

Shannon Baker, spokeswoman for the J.P. Morgan-LAZ Parking consortium, said the group remains interested in the idea. Before council voted on the mayor's plan, LAZ executive Alan Lazowski made the rounds of council offices to propose changes he believed might assuage their concerns.

On Oct. 19, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, a state-appointed oversight board, sent back the mayor's 2011 budget because it included revenue from the parking lease proposal that council rejected.

Under state law, Mr. Ravenstahl was to provide a revised budget by Wednesday. Instead, he resubmitted the original budget with a promise to make changes once Mr. Allen makes his report.

Ms. Doven said the revised budget should be ready Monday. She said Mr. Ravenstahl plans to make his annual budget address to council that day.